HANOI, Vietnam — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had harsh words for China and new maritime
security assistance for southeast Asia yesterday to bolster countries facing growing Chinese
assertiveness in a region where the two world powers are jockeying for influence.

Tensions are running high after a near-collision of U.S. and Chinese naval vessels this month
and an air-defense zone that China has declared over an area that includes territory controlled by
Japan, a U.S. ally. Those actions have raised fresh alarm as Beijing modernizes its military and
claims a wide swath of ocean and disputed islands across the East and South China seas.

Kerry used his first visit to Vietnam as America’s top diplomat to reiterate support for
diplomacy between southeast Asia’s regional bloc and Beijing over the territorial disputes, and to
provide aid for southeast Asian nations to defend waters they claim as their own.

Kerry pledged $32.5 million, including up to $18 million for Vietnam that will include five fast
patrol boats for its Coast Guard. With the new contribution, U.S. maritime security assistance to
the region will exceed $156 million over the next two years, he said.

“Peace and stability in the South China Sea is a top priority for us and for countries in the
region,” Kerry told reporters at a news conference with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh.
“We are very concerned by and strongly opposed to coercive and aggressive tactics to advance
territorial claims.”

The next stop on his Asian trip will be the Philippines, which lost control of a disputed reef
in the South China Sea last year after a standoff with China. The U.S. also is helping equip the
Philippines with ships and radar, and it is in negotiations to increase the American military
presence there.

Kerry said the new assistance was not a “quickly conceived reaction to any events in the region”
but rather a “gradual and deliberate expansion” of U.S. support as part of a broader decision to
refocus attention on the Asia-Pacific.